Posted by Joe Siegler on November 1, 2010 at 10:35 pm http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_11_01_sfnmlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Yes, it was a great season, but I am so not in a mood to be that way. The way we went out sucked. I’ll be happy and retrospective later, but for right now, I am not writing about it. I will later, though.
I will add this. A few minutes after the game was over, I got this email from a Giants fan. Now I know it’s not typical of most fans, but even at my anti-Cowboys worst, I don’t do things like this:

from Carmine {carminemb82@hotmail.com}
sender-time Sent at 10:05 PM (GMT-04:00).
to “joe@rangerfans.com”
date Mon, Nov 1, 2010 at 10:05 PM
subject Texas Rangers
At what point will Josh Hamilton and Ron Washington abandon their families and snort enough blow to explode their hearts? I’m guessing by 8am Thursday morning. Giants!!!!!!!!
Sent from my iPhone

A special thanks to my wife for putting up with me this season. I love you Lynn, thanks for indulging me this season.
Oh, one more thing.. roughly 14 weeks till Spring Training opens.

Posted by Joe Siegler on November 1, 2010 at 8:04 am http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_10_31_sfnmlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

This comes from Chuck Greenberg. It was sent to Jamey Newberg and posted on his site, but I thought it was so good, I wanted to copy it here. It also will suffice for what I would write for Game 4. Had the party at our house, and it was a lot of fun. Friends over, watched the game. Sure, the game was disappointing, but we had a blast. Turns out I went to the far better game choice (Game 3) than going tonight, which was also a possibility there for a minute.
Chuck’s Message begins here:
This season has transcended expectations and transformed the psyche and hearts of legions of Rangers fans across Texas and throughout our country and beyond. At the core of the remarkable journey we have shared together is a ballclub and a community who collectively have consigned the conventional wisdom of the past to the dust bins of history, busting myths and charting a new course previously thought to be unattainable.
Can’t pitch successfully in Rangers Ballpark. Wrong.
Can’t compete successfully late in the season because the heat will break you down. Wrong.
Fans will lose interest when training camp opens. Wrong.
Fans won’t come to Rangers Ballpark after the All Star break because its too hot. Wrong.
Rangers can’t win a playoff series. Wrong.
Rangers can’t win a playoff game at home. Wrong.
Rangers can’t beat the Yankees in the playoffs. Wrong.
Rangers can’t get to the World Series. Wrong.
Rangers can’t captivate the hearts and emotions of fans new and old deep into the fall. Wrong.
And on and on and on….
I can’t even begin to count the memorable moments we have shared this year thanks to a very special group of players with hearts and smiles as big as Texas, who always pull together, stand up for one another, and who have changed the sports landscape here in the Metroplex forever.
But here is a simple reality. Monday will be the last game played in Rangers Ballpark this year. We all owe it to ourselves, our players and each other, to celebrate with passion, enthusiasm and indefatigable belief from lineup cards to the final out, loud and proud.
The defining team of my young life was the 1979, “We are Family” Pittsburgh Pirates. I have often remarked how much this Rangers club reminds me of that team, with a confident but friendly swagger and an abundance of character and personality.
Now these two teams have something else in common. Both fell behind 3-1 in the World Series. Kent Tekulve, the great closer from the ’79 Pirates, texted me after tonight’s game to pass along this story. Before Game 5, Willie Stargell told his teammates:
“We are playing in front of the whole world. We may not win this thing, but before we go, let’s show the world how the Pirates really play baseball”.
The Pirates, playing against a team whose colors were black and orange, won Game 5. Then they returned to Baltimore and won Game 6. Then they won Game 7.
I know our players will show everyone how the Rangers play baseball tomorrow. As fans, let’s do the same. We have one final opportunity this season to show the world what we have accomplished together and the passion we all hold for our players and our shared dreams.
The World Series is going back to San Francisco. And then there will be one final piece of conventional wisdom to prove wrong….
Believe.
Chuck

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 31, 2010 at 3:49 pm http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_10_30_sfnmlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Man, this was such a cool game/day, that I don’t even know where to start with it. There’s just so much to write about, so I guess I’ll just start at the beginning. Once I was done being daddy (had to watch the baby for awhile), I got my gear together, and took off. Since I was hitting a tailgate, I stopped by Kroger to pick up some beer, and some dogs and whatnot. When I was done, I took a picture of the World Series Tickets in my car at the Kroger parking lot, and headed off to Arlington. I left Garland at 1:52PM, and headed out I30 to Arlington.

But that first picture of the tickets there. Man, I NEVER thought I’d be going to a World Series game. Much less one with the Texas Rangers in it. It’s one of those surreal moments. I suppose if I was going to a World Series game in some other town besides Arlington it might seem more “real”, know what I mean? I mean, I’ve been going to games at this ballpark since 1995, and at the height of going, I went to about 25-30 games a season for a few years there. I know the route from around where I live (near Lake Ray Hubbard at Garland/Rockwall border) to Arlington. So when I headed out there again yesterday, it felt on the drive like any other game. Even my walk from my parking spot to where the tailgate party was seemed like any other game. But that’s about where it stopped. I went and hit up my friend Mike Gonterwitz’s tailgate, and noticed as I got closer to his tailgate area that the mood was different. The banners, the fan speak, the language, there wasn’t one single thing I saw or heard I can point to which made it that “Aha!” moment, it was the collective group of everything I saw and heard that made it different. The fans felt different than the other playoff tailgate game I went to. It was fun, from talking baseball with people I didn’t know, to watching fans run through the parking lot with flags screaming “Go Rangers” to predictions of sweeping San Fran, to the wheel of sausage, it was just a blast, man! Didn’t hear as much of that with the tailgating, the various tailgaters didn’t interact with each other. Kind of surprised by that, but it was a lot of fun anyway. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of fun going on out there, but it seemed like a ton of separate little groups of people, it wasn’t nearly as communal as I thought it might be. Headed into the game around 5PM, as the pre-game started at 5:30. Definitely wanted to see that.

I have to say again that the concourses when there’s crowds as big as this are awful. I had to walk 3/4 of the way around the stadium, and there were about 3-4 places where it bottlenecked so badly, you were just stopped. Couldn’t move anywhere. It was worse than LBJ during rush hour. It is NOT helped by all the extra booths in the concourse where people try (hahaha) to stop. They really need to put LESS of that stuff in there. If you were claustrophobic, I could seriously see you having a panic attack. It was pretty bad. One cool moment was that I got to say hi to Dave Winfield, who was out in the Fox booth in center field. Saw some other fans acting goofy inside the stadium – it was awesome. Had a blast with the atmosphere.

Once I got to my seats it was great! I mean, the World Series. You hear those stories about when you’re a little kid walking through the concourse, and having one of those “seeing the field for the first time and being amazed” feelings. Well, at 45 last night, I had one of those again. I’ve seen a ton of games in this park. I know what it looks like very well. Yet when I walked into the park last night I had the oft told tale of seeing the green of the field moment. It was a blast just being there. I’m sure plenty of others had the same feeling, too!

They did the traditional opening ceremonies, including the introductions of the players, which if I’m not mistaken was the fourth time this happened this season (opening day, and first home game of the three rounds of the playoffs). I’ve seen all four in person. That stuff never gets old, along with the ritual booing of the other team. Of course, being a Philly fan, I had to get in a slightly louder one for Pat Burrell, who continues to be old Philly Pat, which means strikeouts all over the place. Rather large boos for Cody Ross, of all people.

Anyway, once the game got started it had a nice pace. Some games take far too long, and some just fly by. This one felt right. Perhaps it had something to do with me not scoring the game for the first time in ages, but it had a flow that felt good. Not too fast, not too slow, had a “sweet molasses” feel to it. That might sound stupid, but it’s how I felt. Really enjoyed that part of it.

Pitching wise, Colby Lewis started, and carried on his post season track record. His pitching line was pretty darned good, and was exactly what the Rangers needed in this Game 3. No way could we go down 0-3 and expect to win this thing. Colby went 7.2 innings, gave up five hits and two earned runs. Walked two and punched out six. His line was better than the two runs – as for the longest time, the Giants had no runs – they didn’t score at all until the 7th, and for awhile just two or three hits. Colby was awesome. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I was wrong about him. His return was not a desperation move like I thought it was at the time we signed him. This was a steal of a pickup. Japan fixed him, that’s for sure. Anyway, the two runs he gave up were both on solo home runs. One to Cody Ross in the seventh, and the other to Andres Torres in the 8th. Both were solo’s, so it didn’t hurt too much, but it did seem that Lewis was running out of gas just a little in the 8th. Darren O’Day came out to the big chant that gets done to his name, “Oh-DAY-Oh-Day-Oday. Oooo DAY o DAY!” Was a lot of fun despite the mood right around me of “Uh-oh. It’s the bullpen, look out!” After O’Day got his final out of the 8th, it was turned over to Neftali Feliz who was just lights out. 1-2-3, no problem. 13 pitches, two strikeouts. If there was any worry about Feliz not appearing in a situation so far in the World Series, this performance showed there was no concern. He just closed it, game over!

Offensively, our four runs all came on home runs, too. The big shot was in the second when Mitch Moreland got the hit of the series so far. A three run home run to right, scoring Cruz & Molina. He worked the count before that, looked like a guy either who had been there a million times, or it wasn’t a World Series game. Josh Hamilton added a no doubter later on, but Moreland’s was by far the moment of the series so far.

When the game ended, nobody really wanted to leave it seemed. It wasn’t quite a series clincher atmosphere, or what I imagine it would have been like to win the World Series totally at home, but man was IT FUN! This is where it got communal, with everyone high fiving each other, smiling about the game, just being “one fan”. It was a cool moment. Once we finally got started going out, we noticed that the Fox broadcast booth was behind our section. They were JUST coming on the air, and of course fans started hooting and hollering. My friend I was with (Jeff) and I just kind of mingled our way in there, as it was a fun moment. The fans there were really shouting LOUDLY “Let’s go Rangers!” over and over again. At one point Ozzie Guillen turned around with a look on his face like “What the hell?” He turned back around again, and during the time they were on the air, he turned around and blew the crowd kisses a few times. It was funny, because several people started shouting Ozzie’s name, which prompted me to say “What is this, a Black Sabbath concert?” It was a blast, and I was showing my hat, doing the claw, and when the crowd was chanting Ozzie’s name, I did the Molloy (look it up, it’s an old Jewish custom). Anyway it was right around this time that my daughter at home was watching the post game stuff with Lynn, and Samantha saw me on TV. She apparently got SO excited that she dropped her ice cream all over her shirt, and started bouncing off the walls. Lynn broke out the camera at home, and of course, I’m captured doing the Molloy thing (also is close to the Longhorns “Hook ’em Horns” salute), not the claw or my hat or something. Check it out:

When I finally got out of the stadium, there was more goofiness. People with signs, everyone screaming, yelling, it was a seriously intense post game feel. More high fives, and whatnot. I took a stroll past my tailgate area, but none of them had left yet, so I headed back to the car to go home.

Even then it didn’t stop – I had about 3 or 4 people ask me as I walked by what I thought of the game, what I thought of the series. When I finally did make it to my car, there were about half a dozen people who had camped out in the exit lanes of the parking lot high fiving everyone who was driving by. When I got past them, there were people lining the streets urging the cars to honk their horns.

This was probably the single most fun Texas Rangers game I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to a lot of them. Finally fulfilled a kid’s dream of going to a World Series game.

I have Chris Wilson of Fleishman-Hillard and Donna McLallen of Chevrolet (I think she’s with Chevy) for hooking me up with all of this. I’ve been doing a promotion for them by driving around a 2011 Chevy Cruze car that has antlers on it and the Antler Yourself website on the side. They hooked me up with the tickets to the game last night, and I wouldn’t have been there without them. I’m thankful to both of them for helping to fulfill this kid’s dream.

I think a good summary of this game would be this song, which should be totally familiar to Ranger fans.

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 29, 2010 at 7:15 pm http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_10_28_texmlb_sfnmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Man, I so did not want to write about this game. I really did not. The way it ended was just a complete steaming pile of stink. Not the kind of face you want to show on the biggest stage like that. The game was quite good up until the bottom of the 8th, and there were so many “man, if it only went ‘this way’ it would have been different” moments. Like Kinslers ball of the top of the center field wall for starters. But the 8th was just so horrendous, it erased any good feelings about the game. I’m just going with my notes for this one. Man, that was awful. I don’t have a problem with the series – it’s still winnable, unless of course we go down 3-0 on Saturday. :(

Tired tonight. Probably won’t be as many notes.

Guerrero is out. Probably not a bad idea given his bad d late last night.

10 pitch 123 for Cain in 1st

15 pitch 123 for CJ in 1st

10 pitch 123 for Cain in 2nd

Burrell strikes out again!

17 pitch second for Cj. Allows a double, thats it.

First Rangers hit was Mitch Moreland, a 1b to right.

35 thru 3 for Cain

46 thru 4 for Cain

57 thru 4 for CJ. Walked Burrell in 4th, thats it.

Leadoff 2b for Kinsler in 5th, missed a HR literally by an inch. Hit top of fence.

After kinsler 2b, we couldn’t do anything. Out to short twice, then an ibb to get to CJ, who grounded to first. Stupid NL Rules!

Theres the first run. HR to renteria who turned around on one, got a great swing.

CJ has just 73 thru 5. That’s good. But the 1 run feels like it might hold up all night!

Cody ross dive and miss in rf on hamiltons ball kept a runner from scoring, most likely

Crap. 2nd & 3rd – one out. We get nothing. :(

Another 123 for CJ. Just one run thru the 6th.

Still no runs thru 7. At least it’s going fast. Sigh.

Wilson out after one batter in 7th with blister. Could be a problem around game 5 or 6.

Uribe hurts us again with an RBI single. The run was the walk by CJ scoring.

Cain is out after 7.2 IP with no runs, 102 pitches, and only a handful of hits. He was lifted for a lefty/eighty matchup against Hamilton. There’s that stupid NL stuff again.

Way to go Holland?!?! Comes in, 4 pitch walk. This is bad Derek on the mound.

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 28, 2010 at 11:36 am http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_10_27_texmlb_sfnmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Well, that was disappointing. The big huge pitching matchup between Cliff Lee & Tim Lincecum didn’t materialize, at least not long term, anyway. Through four it was a good pitching duel, not one of those stellar “both guys going after a no hitter” kind. Through four, it was a respectable 2-2 score. But neither was “on”. Cliff Lee wasn’t getting behind guys, and Lincecum was mostly hittable.
One of the more cool early moments was a double that split the outfielders by CLIFF LEE. Cliff Lee wields the boomstick (well, OK, maybe not THAT powerful), and I got a major laugh out of the entire dugout trying to get him to do the claw once he got to second. Doesn’t appear that he ACTUALLY did it, but it was some funny video.
That was pretty much the end of the good times for Lee. He struggled with command, which was unusual, and when we got to the bottom of the fifth, the wheels fell off. Big time. The Giants put a big old ugly six spot on the scoreboard, which was accentuated by a three run home run by Juan Uribe. Technically O’Day gave that up, but it did score all the inherited runners Cliff Lee left out there. Lee’s final line was 4.2 IP, 104 P, 8H, 1B, 7K, 7R, 6ER. Not a good line at all. He labored big time – for him to throw over 100 pitches and not get out of the fifth inning is highly unusual.
An awful lot of the Giants offense was doubles. They had 14 hits in all, and seven of them were doubles. The first two were early on in the game and both hit in Vlad Guerrero’s position in right. I don’t think those balls hit his way were impacted by it being him vs Cruz out there. That’s not the same case later on – he botched a few plays. One of them was called a double, and should have been an error. The Rangers had four doubles of their own, but it was overshadowed by SF’s doubles, including a few of them that came back to back.
Four errors by Texas. Ugh. That was just ugly. Six errors in all in the game, one of the more sloppy World Series games I’ve seen. If it wasn’t my team in the World Series, I probably would have bailed out on the game as it wore on. We did make some noise late, but the momentum I think we gained by scoring two in the sixth to make it 8-4 at the time was wipe out when Kinsler got an infield single, but had another bonehead running play, turning towards second and being trapped – was tagged out. That was the game for me right there.
We did make some noise late, scoring three in the top of the ninth to make it just a four run final score, but we were pretty much outhit. Something I don’t think ANYONE expected. Even Giants fans.
Hoping for far better things out of Game 2. I’ll be there. I just don’t really want to come home down 0-2. That would be bad. I think most everyone would be happy with 1-1, because as happened in the Yankees series, I don’t think any expected us to sweep out there to start the series, so coming home 1-1 is pretty decent.
Here’s my list of in game notes (which became less frequent once we started playing more awful):

Why do they keep pronouncing Andrus’ name wrong?

Elvis is first player in World Series history named that.

Elvis has hit in every postseason game to this point.

Why is Guerrero being booed?

My baby clapped on his own when the Rangers scored their first run.

Thanks to Lincecum for not throwing the ball!

Ok, only scored 1 with bases loaded against Lincecum in first. Never like omens like that.

First batter was a kc for lee. Good sign.

12 pitch first for Lee. Faced only three. Inning ended on a really awesome dp popup catch by Kinsler.

CLIFF LEE! double!

Shot of the dugout trying to get Lee to do the claw was hysterical!

Buck & McCarver did not do their homework. That is NOT what the claw is!

Watching Molina run home on the sac fly, all i could think of was Chris Berman’s “Rumbling bumbling stumbling”.

That’s the Pat Burrell I know. Swing and a miss at a ball down and away. Juando had the same problem.

3ks for Lee thru 2.

Giants have 2 2b through 2,both in Vlads direction. Don’t think Cruz would have made a difference that way.

That foul out by Lincecum in the 3rd so didn’t go anywhere. If fact, I thought it was in the stands, Molina didn’t move at all.

Giants get momentum after tying game, have 2 on, and then Burrell strikes out again.

Lee comes back after bump to get two in a row with a called k. Pitch count a bit too high.

Moreland looked bad 1st at bat, and most of second until he connected for a double that almost split the outfielders for a triple.

Cliff Lee beats out Uribe on a 10 pitch K. Wont help the pitch count.

Through 4.1, Giants have 5 hits. Four are doubles.

Six hits, five are doubles. Three by Sanchez.

Lee is out after 4.2 IP, with 5 runs in, two men on, and 105 pitches. Wow. Giants were 5-10 with RISP.

Ouch O’Day. I mean OUCH!

What a mess this 5th is. Error by Elvis, too.

Breaking up the shutdown is good. Wad Molina too, with a double, scoring Kinsler, who walked.

Hit Lincecum with another batted ball. Inning continues.

After that, Murphy PH, gets RBI single to right to make it 8-4. Lincecum out.

Ogando looked good in his inning. Probably coming back.

After Burrell k’ed for the third time,he was pulled for defense.

Ogando was better in his second inning, and Molina got a caught stealing.

Way to fall asleep running Kinsler.

Guerrero looks awful in right in the 8th.

Generous scoring decision saves Vlad from second error in inning. Gives SF their 7th 2B of the night.

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 23, 2010 at 11:24 am http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_10_22_nyamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

I almost don’t know where to go with this. Do I write about the game? Do I write about the fact that we beat the Yankees, or the less quantifiable “feel good” stuff about being in the World Series? I honestly didn’t know where to go with this last night. I still don’t know where to go with this now, and I’m writing it about 12 hours after we advanced to the World Series. There’s a part of me that just wants to write “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaa!” and be done with it. :)But before I get into any of it, one of my favorite moments of the night – even more so than the fact that we won, or that we beat the Yankees was what Josh Hamilton had to say in his post game remarks. That he immediately deflected attention from himself on the national TBS post-game stuff to God and Jesus was awesome. In his panel discussion later on, he did it again when someone asked him if this was the pinnacle for him, and he replied, “That will come when I stand before my saviour”. That stuff was all awesome. Gotta love that. You can view a video clip of one of these here.
Anyway, backing up, we went into this game having lost Game 5 in New York. I think a lot of Ranger fans after we had won the first two were really hoping we could have knocked it out We didn’t, and came back to Texas for Game 6. That had the advantage of course of if we clinched this in 6, it would be in front of our home crowd, and as the added cherry on top, would send the Yankees home on their plane ride losers. So back home we came, and Colby Lewis would take the mound. Rangers fans all season know his 12-13 record was more a factor of lack of run support, not the way Lewis pitched. Had he had decent run support, he would have won a lot more, daresay have a shot at 20 wins. However, in a pressure packed game such as this, one never really knows what kind of pitcher you can get. Colby’s biggest problem is walks, and walks against the Yankees can burn your backside – you just DON’T give people freebies like that and expect to get away with it. Especially the Yankees, who seem to have thrived on taking advantage of stuff like that over the years. So I went into this game confident, yet nervous about our starting pitching. Mostly because I was expecting Phil Hughes to be better than he was first time around.
He wasn’t. Phil Hughes didn’t get out of the fifth inning, and one of the MLB Network guys said that he figured one of the starters wouldn’t make it past five, and whichever team that was would probably get eliminated. Turns out they were right in that (although most of their pre-game predictions about who would win were not – 3 of the 4 guys picked NYY). Hughes went 4.2 innings, gave up just four hits, but there’s that stat. He walked four. Gave up four runs – all earned. Given the urgency of this game, he was pulled, probably would have stayed in otherwise. But the “moral” victory of having the starter out before the end of the fifth was a good one.
That brought in David Robertson, who has been torched this postseason. This was no different. He gave up the big shot, a two run home run to Nelson Cruz, which at the time put us up 5-1. Was a no doubter, and was one of the moments my daughter watched. She liked seeing it because the fireworks that went off lit up everyone in the stands, and since most of them were wearing red, it made everyone light up red, which looked visually pretty darned cool. At this point, you could feel it, start to smell it, and while no run is truly safe against the Yankees, just for this once, it felt like we FINALLY were able to step on their throats, and hurt them enough that they wouldn’t come back. This was right.
Due in part to Colby Lewis, who pitched the game of his life last night. Officially, his line was eight innings pitched, 3 hits, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts, and one earned run. The one earned run was a bunch of crap, actually. The single run the Yankees got all night was a gift run. Plucked straight from the Yankees bag of acting their way into something that didn’t really happen, Nick Swisher was hit by a pitch, but the home plate umpire didn’t see it, and it was ruled a wild pitch, which scored Alex Rodriguez. It prompted arguing from the Rangers, as it was quite clearly a blown call. It wasn’t one of those “close ones” where fans from other sides could posture and say their call was right. This was clearly a blown call, and if called correctly, should have not led to a run there. One never knows what would have happened after that, but wouldn’t it have been sweeter to have the Yankees lay a goose egg when they were eliminated? Still, that the one run the Yankees got was a gift from the umpires, you still have to be into that. But Colby Lewis had the game of his life. His pitches were sharp, his command looked great. He did walk three, but nothing there really hurt him. It was the pitching performance that Rangers fans dreamed of. At the absolute end of his outing he started to show signs of possibly running out of gas, but it didn’t affect his line. So he came out after eight to make way for Neftali Feliz. After he came out, Ron Washington gave him this massive bear hug in the dugout. Here’s a few captures of that:

I’m not going to write a lot about our offense this game. Can be summed up this way easily. The Yankees LOST! Yeah! Seriously, the RBI’s mostly came from Vlad Guerrero, who had three. They intentionally walked Josh Hamilton three times (including one of those pitches being a wild pitch on an iBB toss), one of which finally was made up for by Guerrero, right before Cruz’s home run. Guerrero had 3 RBI’s, Cruz had 2, and Kinsler had one. For some reason, the details of how we scored was unimportant right now.
Netfali Feliz came in for the ninth, and struck out two to seal the deal. The sweetest part of all that is the fact that the final strike was a called third against Alex Rodriguez. So, one can say that Arod still helped us get to the World Series after all this time.
Cliff Lee awaits either Roy Halladay or Tim Lincecum in Game 1 of the World Series. Man, it just seems weird, doesn’t it? In year 50 of the franchise overall, we finally get to the World Series. I went out this morning to buy a copy of the Dallas Morning News as it’s got a ton of Rangers stuff in it. While I was standing in line at the gas station waiting to pay, guy behind me just said “Rangers are in the World Series, who would have thunk it?” Random baseball talk in this town is something else to be amazed about. The Cowboys are going down in flames this season too, so yeah – it’s a great sports time right now here!
Below are my notes I took during the game like I’ve done for the other games I’ve scored at home watching. My family and I are going to drive out to the Ballpark this afternoon and hit the gift shop, see what’s going on out there. But before I get to my own game notes below, I’ll use this comments I got sent by MLB Network Press this morning about the game by their “pro” dudes. This is all just so cool! Cannot wait for next Wednesday. Bring on the National League!
My wife has already started “Rangering Up” the house. We’ll have some sort of Party for Game 3 next Saturday, the first of the home games. Look at this picture of various stuffed animals in our house. She did this while I was writing this report. What’s amusing about all the clothes on the dolls is that all of them were worn at some point by one of our two kids when they were little (or in my son’s case, even littler). Here’s one example. Check out what Hello Kitty is wearing vs what my daughter was wearing in this pic taken Sep 13, 2005. :)

MLB Network Quotes:On the Rangers’ offense:Harold Reynolds:
What’s great about the Rangers going to the World Series through the Yankees is that it validates how good they are…They went through Tampa, they went through the Yankees and they did this in the course of a two-week span where you’ve gotta come out with the best blazing. Tampa gave them a challenge and sent them back to Tampa to go knock it out, the Yankees came back to Texas – nobody rolled over on them. They had to earn this. You’ve got guys backing up [Josh] Hamilton and that’s what great about this Texas team…That’s the depth of this club, and when you get to the middle of the order, from two, three, four, five, six on down to Kinsler, forget about it. Those guys can flat-out match and this is why they are the best offense in baseball right now.On Colby Lewis:Dan Plesac:
His body language tonight was of a guy who was on a mission….It’s especially sweet for Rangers fans to get to the World Series, but to get there, you have to go through the mighty Yankees and from the first pitch of the game…he was not scared, he was focused, he was delivering, and as the game kept going on and on, you could just see him believing in his stuff and the fielders believing in what he was doing. This was the best game he has pitched in his life – he was lights out.On Michael Young:Dan Plesac:
He’s the first guy that I’ve seen, and I played with a guy that’s a Hall of Famer – Paul Molitor with the Milwaukee Brewers – [with the] same type of swing, really quiet, just the way he goes about doing his business. We were talking during the course of the game that [Young] gets so right field-conscious, you’d like to see him look for that ball in and go ahead and turn on it. His last at bat [tonight], he gets a fastball in and rifles it down the line. [He’s a] complete player, one of the most underrated all-around good players in the American League.Harold Reynolds:
What I like about Michael Young is his selflessness. He’s not selfish at all. He’s an All-Star, Gold Glove shortstop, and they say ‘Hey, we’ve got a kid in Double-A.’ Double-A? Ok, Elvis Andrus has turned out to be a real nice player, but you go to any Major League All-Star, who’s playing on the World Baseball Classic team representing the U.S., one of the top players in the world and say, ‘You’re going to move for a kid who’s 20’? He moved over to third base and that set the trend and the tone for this whole franchise where Nolan Ryan could actually come in change the whole culture now and say ‘See what Michael Young did? Our pitchers are going deeper; Ron Washington’s our manager. Here’s where we’re headed, gentlemen. Look at Michael Young.’ And that has changed the whole direction of the Texas Rangers.My in game notes:

Let’s do this. Time to finish it out. Scorepad is filled out, ready to score the game.

My daughters school had a “Wear a Rangers shirt to school” day. She wore her 2010 Playoff shirt.

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 21, 2010 at 3:58 pm http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_10_20_texmlb_nyamlb_1>MLB.com Recap

Given I don’t write about losses to the Yankees, I’ll keep this to a minimum.
Would it have been nice to win last night, sending the Yankees home for the season in the Bronx? Hell yeah, it would have been. However, I don’t think anyone really expected the Rangers to beat the Yankees three games in a row in the Bronx to eliminate them. One could make the point that if the bullpen had done it’s job in the 8th in Game 1, we wouldn’t have had to play last night, but there you go. I’m feeling fairly good about it, still. Two games at home should not be a problem. I would much rather us not get to Game 7 so we can use Cliff Lee in the World Series Game 1. But you do what you have to. Would much rather us nail it down Friday night.
CJ Wilson was completely ineffective last night. Looked pretty bad. Don’t know why, but he just wasn’t working. Thing is, a decently pitched game from CJ probably would have won the game, as Sabathia was still pedestrian at best. Way better than the Game 1 incarnation, but still beatable. We didn’t take advantage of it. Oh well, back to Arlington. Will make for a more annoying thing for the Yankees to fly back home losers after that.
Here are my Game 5 notes:

Paul O’Neill says the Yankees seemed to expect the team would walk through the round lime they did with the twins.

Here we go. Gsme 5. The stadium seems oddly vacant for the start of a game!

You think the rangers might step on them in the first, but young grounds into dp in 1st

Two hits and no runs in the first. CC looks hittable, just mot as wild as game 1.

CJ answers back with 12 pitch 1-2-3 first

Yay! Kinsler seeing through, not uppercut! A miracle!

Kinsler stolen base in second is the 8th in the series, the cost against the Yankees ever in a postseason series.

Kinsler stranded there on Treanor K

CJ has thrown ball one to first four batters including four pitch walk to both Arod & Berkman

Yankees score first bang bang play at home. It was a walk run.

Two runs scored on a bad news bears play where the ball was thrown away twice. Young muffed a throw, and CJ threw it away too.

Both walks have scored.

Wilson comes back with a K on 9th, and a quick grounder on first pitch by Jeter to escape horrible inning where the Yankees scored 3.

Shutdown inning executed by CC in third, but it wasn’t an easy one. We need to break through soon.

CJ just does not have it. Back to back HR by Swisher & Cano. Who are we getting up?

Berkman at first just took a bad spill sliding in foul territory. Don’t want to see that.

Cj just came out for fourth, he still looks bad, he needs to come out before it gets any worse

Jeter has grounded out 6-3 in his first three plate appearances.

Cj put up a zero in fourth after leadoff double.

Were on the board, with a solo HR by Matt Treanor in the 5th.

Moreland follows HR with a single to center.

Rangers look to be hitting CC a bit harder in the 5th.

Dammit. Hamilton hit into dp with men on first and second to end 5th.

In the bottom of the 5th, Wilson is still in, but Cruz is out. Tight hamstring. Uh-oh.

Leadoff walk in bottom of 5th by cj. Why is he still out there?

Kirkman in for the 6th. Leadoff double, but no runs. Good deal.

Kerry Wood in for 7th. Andrus gets an infield hit on chopper off Woods hand.

Elvis gets picked off – WTF! No more leads at all for him.

Nothing quite as disheartening as a pickoff in the playoffs when behind. :(

Ogando gives up another home run to Yankees. This time to Curtis Granderson

Moreland fought off Rivera really well in the 9th, eventually getting a single to left.

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 20, 2010 at 1:14 am http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_10_19_texmlb_nyamlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

A reading from the book of Kurt Cockran Chapter 1 Verse 1..

“If the Yankees get a hit and no one is there to see it, does it count?”

When this game started, I was of the ilk of “Well, OK, we’re either going to bomb them, or Burnett will pitch a gem, and it’ll be tied 2-2”. We ended up bombing them, but man, was it NOT in the way I thought it was going to happen.
There was a ton of talk about Burnett not having pitched in awhile, and that he was having an awful season, and nobody in their right mind could believe that Burnett was starting this game. Girardi was committing post season suicide by doing this. I thought we had a shot if Burnett didn’t pitch well. Thing is, he did for the most part. If you take out the last pitch he threw, his line would have been 6 innings, five hits, two earned runs. Not too bad, but as we know that’s not what his line was. It was 6 innings, 6 hits, five earned runs.
The bottom of the second was interesting enough. It brought back memories of 1996 where a home run ball was disputed in the right field wall, then we brought instant replay into it. But not on that play, on another play where it was ruled a home run, but called back. The Yankees were briefly up 2-0 until it was reverted back to 1-0.
The top of the third was interesting too, as we scored two runs without the benefit of a ball leaving the infield. Walk, hit by pitch, sac bunt, ground out to first, infield single to third. That was the way we scored two runs in the third. We let the Yankees back in it by allowing ’em to tie in the bottom of the third and to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth.
It stayed that way for awhile – the Yankees up 3-2.
Tommy Hunter was “eh”. He wasn’t going to be Cliff Lee from last night, but I was expecting him to survive the fourth. He didn’t. 3.1 innings, 5 hits, 3 ER. No walks, but he wasn’t very good with control. Could have been worse, mind you, but we managed to keep it together – or at least off the scoreboard after that. The Yankees didn’t score any more runs after the fourth inning.
They certainly tried in the 8th. They had the bases loaded again after some awful bullpen work by Clay Rapada & Darren O’Day (plus the only batter Holland faced in the 8th). Those guys walked the bases loaded. Darren Oliver came in and did not repeat his Game 1 meltdown, and got the job done. Flyout by Swisher, and a groundout by Berkman. It was certainly dicey there in the 8th as the tying run was up at bat.
Not that half the stadium would know, as they started a mass exodus again early. So much for the vaulted Yankee fan loyalty. They’re about as fickle as Cowboys fans are. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that, but I am.
There was a lot of offense late, but the best moment came on the final pitch that A.J. Burnett threw, which was to Bengie Molina. The Yankees had made the right move and walked David Murphy to get to Molina. He’s obviously not a slouch with the bat, but it is the odds move to make. Walk the lefty to get to the righty. Problem is Burnett grooved a pitch first to Molina, and he nailed it – almost got to the second deck in left field. At the time, it put the Rangers up 5-3. It was a HELL of a feeling, as I was feeling kind of down at that time, to be honest. Not ready to give up – but feeling that we weren’t going to win the game. Molina made use of Nelson Cruz’s boomstick, and bam – it changed in an instant. It led to this:

Yeah, I know the image is a total hack job, but I didn’t have the time to fiddle with putting Nelson Muntz in there properly. :)
After that, there were three more home runs. Two by Josh Hamilton, the second of which landed right in the middle of the Yankees bullpen. Very amusing. The other was a titanic blast by Nelson Cruz in the ninth to get us to the final score of 10-3. But Molina was the big power guy for me – his home run was the game (and dare I hope series) clincher. After that it was our game, except for a moment in the bottom of the 8th when we danced with letting the Yankees back in – but this time we did manage to step on their throats.
Also, Vlad Guerrero is hot, he went 4-5 this game. That bodes well assuming we do advance. :)
Below is my list of game notes, there’s some good stuff in there. Check it out. Oh man, we’re only ONE GAME away from the stinkin’ World Series. We could be there in about 17 hours from the moment I’m typing this. It’s by far not over, but then again, I’m the fan, not the player. Players will say the right thing, but they have to be lying if they don’t at least smell it. :)

Here’s the list:

Got a feeling aj will do welltonight. No big numbers, just gut feeling.

Better first for Burnett than any other Yankees starter so far.

7 pitch 1-2-3 for Hunter, beating Burnetts 9pitch 1-2-3 in the first.

Burnett has 3 ks through two

Chalk one up for replay. Bs for umpires for not checking the Cruz one.

The first two innings aj looked like the one i didn’t want to show up. So far in the thirds, he is the one I enacted to show up.

Teixeira saved a run with a great play on Andrus grounder. Did tie the game though.

The chiller couldn’t get the ball out of his glove on a Young grounder. inf 1b and RBI for young.

The Rangers take the lead without a ball leaving the infield

And the game is on. Yankees tie it up with a two out single scoring Jeter who had tripled.

Hunter nails Arod with a pitch in the fourth. Wheeeee!

Tommy Hunter is NOT Cliff Lee. Out after 3.2 innings. Leaves with 2-2 score, but bases loaded.

Really nice play by Elvis for a 6-5 fc to get an out. And save a second run.

Got to see my favorite thing. A camera that is on get hit by this time not a ball, but a bat. Put a HOLE in the camera lens. Wow.

Nice work by Holland to keep a potentially disastrous inning from getting out of hand.
Tex annoys me. Period.

Nice at bat by young in the 5th, working a walk after a million pitches.

Steve Bartmann II?

Ok, we didnt cash in in the 5th. Got that sinking feeling right now.

I do not want to see Holland again in the playoffs.

If the Yankees open it up here, im done scoring the game,

Tex looks like he’s coming out, he’s holding his hamstring.

The TBS guys name dropped Rich Harden. That was the only was he was getting into the playoffs.

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 18, 2010 at 11:52 pm http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_10_18_texmlb_nyamlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Shutting out the Yankees at home in the playoffs. Who would have thunk it?
For a game that had a final score of 8-0, it seemed really weird to say it was a totally well pitched game, that was rather close the whole time. But it was. Other than a single pitch mistake, this was an absolute pitcher’s duel gem up until the ninth inning.
I think we all expected a pretty good, pitching dominating game, but what we got was freakin’ fantastic. Here’s the overall starting pitcher lines:
Andy Pettite: 7IP, 110P, 5H, 2R, 0BB, 5K
Cliff Lee: 8IP, 122P, 2H, 0R, 1BB, 13K
The only mistake made by either of them was a ball to Josh Hamilton in the first. Which wasn’t much of a real mistake, actually. Josh reached out and batted at a ball and got it over the fence in right to give us a 2-0 lead in the first. Off the bat, it looked like a ball that would just get dumped into right field for a hit, but it went out for a home run. It was an early lead, one that made me feel better about facing Andy Pettite. But that’s about all the offense that happened for quite awhile.
Cliff Lee started mowing down batters, including a few against Derek Jeter that made Jeter look more stupid for swinging (rather hard) at a ball out of the strike zone. Not easy to make Jeter look silly. The first eleven Yankees were set down in order, seven of them by strikeout. Cliff Lee faced 27 batters total. Of those, only two of them got hits (Brett Gardner & Jorge Posada), and one walked. That’s it. Everyone else sat down. It’s pretty close to total domination. Even given his pitch count of 122 after eight innings, he was going to come back out, and most everyone who was online with me thought so too. But then the top of the ninth happened, and he sat down, as well he should.
What happened in the ninth? Well, it was PAYBACK FOR THE TOP OF THE EIGHTH IN GAME ONE! I mean wow. It was just like the other day. Runs and hits just kept coming. Here’s a tally of the top of the ninth:

Double by Hamilton

Single by Guerrero (lifted for Borbon as a pinch runner)

Single by Cruz

Strikeout by Kinsler (who if first wasn’t occupied, probably would have gotten there on a dropped strike three

Murphy pinch hits for Franceour, and is intentionally walked.

Molina immediately singles, screwing with that idea.

Mitch Moreland singled.

Elvis Andrus doubled

Michael Young grounded to third

Josh Hamilton flied to left

That was the top of the ninth, and it was beautiful. It was even sweeter that it was against the bloody stinkin’ NEW YORK YANKEES. Fan posturing aside, what did amaze me was the shots of people leaving the stadium when it got to 3-0. THREE – and you bail out? Come on. When it got to 6, and especially 8, I could understand it. But Yankee fans bailing after just three runs? That’s disgraceful. I’ve always thought and believed Yankee fans (though misguided) to be loyal to their team. They showed tonight that they were NOT. EPIC FAIL on the part of Yankee fans in the ninth.
What is interesting about this is that if we can jump on AJ Burnett tomorrow like most everyone except Joe Girardi things we will, we could go up 3-1. That raises the possibility of not NEEDING to pitch Cliff Lee again in the series, setting him up for Game 1 in the World Series against (I hope) Roy Halladay. Anyway, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, but man was tonight fun for a Rangers fan. Enjoyed the heck out of it.
Major kudos to TBS for not bombing us with celebrity sightings. I know TBS takes a lot of grief over their baseball coverage (I mean Craig Sager NEEDS TO GO), but they have a lot of great camera angles which Fox Sports Southwest could learn a thing or three from. But tonight, if this was Fox, we’d have an inning’s worth of total combined time of celebrity sightings, with nice graphics on the bottom saying who they are, etc. Don’t care about that junk. Yes, we know they’re there. I’m sure Billy Crystal was there. Do we need to see that every game? NO! Thanks to TBS for not doing that. Would have liked to have seen the moron who ran on the field during the game though. Was probably just trying to disrupt Bengie Molina’s timing at the plate :)
I also did take my twitter notes again, but decided not to flood Twitter with these notes tonight (see Jake, I was doing you a favor). Here they are for my site. Looking for game 3 tomorrow night. Hopefully right after my Phillies go up 2-1 on the Giants.
Oh, P.S. Before the game started, MLB Network was interviewing Tom Grieve, and at the end, they asked him about the claw & antler stuff. They got Tom to do it on the air. Grabbed a few shots of that off the TV. Check ’em out before my list of in game notes below.

Posted by Joe Siegler on October 17, 2010 at 12:48 am http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_10_16_nyamlb_texmlb_1&mode=wrap>MLB.com Recap

Man, after Game 1, I came home, and deleted all episodes of Baseball Tonight, all of MLBN’s MLB Tonight, didn’t read a single recap. Heck, I didn’t even look at the pictures I took! That game annoyed me so much, I listened to just the new Afters album on the drive home, and when I got home, it was “Plants vs. Zombies” time.
BTW, the new Afters album is quite good. If you don’t know them, they’re a band that originated in Mesquite, TX, and is a Christian pop band. Check ’em out. A link to their most recent album (Light Up the Sky) is here. I recommend tracks 1, 3, & 8.
Anyway, the only thing I did last night was write a short marker piece for my site here. And I didn’t think about it too much at all until Game 2 was starting. It extended into the beginning of the game, actually, although I started feeling a little better once we started scoring. :)
I took the same kinds of notes I did in the ALDS when I posted a ton of stuff on Twitter, although this time I just jotted the notes down, I didn’t flood Twitter. Here’s my notes from watching the game. It’ll be quite nice to go to New York for Game 3 with Cliff Lee on the mound and being 1-1 instead of 0-2. A LOT better.

About Site

This is a Texas Rangers fan site run by Joe Siegler. From 1999 through 2013 I used to do daily game updates, but got burnt out on that and stopped.

The site lives on as my favorite section to update I'm still very interested in. That is the Uniform Number history pages, which I'm quite proud of. Plus Ill write the odd article here and there.

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line.
-- Joe

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